In a study proving that chivalry is beauty not dead, researchers found that when walking with female partners, men tend to slow down in order to match the woman's speed, but only if the woman is a romantic partner.
The researchers, from Seattle Pacific University, published their results in the journal PLOS ONE beauty .
Apparently, we all have an "optimal walking speed," at which we are able to minimize our energy expenditure. This is unique to each individual and varies with mass and lower limb length.
As a result, men tend to have optimal walking speeds that are faster than those of women beauty . But the researchers say that when men and women walk together, one of the two needs to pay the "energetic cost of deviating from his or her optimal speed."
To examine speed choices among men and women, the researchers had 22 individuals beauty - 11 men and 11 women, who made up 11 romantically linked couples - walk around a track under three different conditions:
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Alone
With their significant other (with and without holding hands), and
With friends of the same and opposite sex beauty .
As the participants walked the track, the researchers recorded their speeds every 100 m. beauty
When the males walked with their female romantic partners, the researchers observed that they slowed beauty down by an average of 7% to match the female's speed.
However, when men and women who were not romantic beauty partners walked together, the paces did not significantly change. Though the females slightly sped up and the males slightly slowed down, the researchers say that the lack of a significant change suggests that pace adjustments only occur for romantic partners.
They say that because the men in a romantic partnership adjusted their beauty pace to slow down for their female partner, "the female is spared the potentially increased caloric cost required to walk together."
These results, say the researchers, could have further implications for beauty mobility or reproductive strategies of groups, and they could even help interpret fossil footprint trails or hunter gatherer strategies.
Interestingly, when the females travelled together, they walked even beauty slower than they did with their partner. The researchers say this could relate to previous work showing that women report feeling very close to their female friends. beauty
By contrast, previous studies have shown that men report not feeling as close or intimate with their male friends, and indeed, the men walked more quickly when walking together than they did when they walked alone. beauty
Whether walking fast or slow, the participants in the study beauty will have gained heart benefits, as Medical News Today recently reported that walking reduces heart risks as much as running does beauty